


Teaching and Learning

by ballycastlebat



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Faculty Shenanigans, Gen, I want to tag everything but that would be spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-21 18:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30025908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ballycastlebat/pseuds/ballycastlebat
Summary: Your first year of teaching is like no other, and teaching at Hogwarts is no exception.A series of vignettes, following Neville Longbottom as he learns much more than he expected during his first year back at Hogwarts- about teaching, about his colleagues, about himself, and about life.
Relationships: Neville Longbottom/Luna Lovegood
Kudos: 2





	Teaching and Learning

**Author's Note:**

> This started from the all too ridiculous and then entertaining question of "What would professional development be like at Hogwarts?"  
> A tribute to the teachers, who not only support the students but also each other.  
> I hope you enjoy.

“Neville! You’re late!”

Neville sighed as his grandmother’s shriek from downstairs rattled the portraits on the wall and checked his father’s pocket watch. The trusty timepiece said 4:45, which meant that it was only 4:35, as he discovered last week that Luna had apparently set the watch ahead six months ago. One of the few things his grandmother and girlfriend agreed on was that his fluid relationship with time was not endearing, but today, Neville was actually impressed with himself. He was only running about five minutes behind! Why on earth was Gran so worried? Yes, the instructions said to activate the portkey at 4:30, but the welcome dinner was not for a few hours yet.

“Just a minute Gran!” Neville hollered as he checked for the fifth time that his trunk was securely closed. The remembrall on his desk glowed a calming orange (a level of forgetfulness he had become comfortable with over the last few years). He was ready.

He slipped the remembrall into his pocket and ran down the stairs with his trunk floating behind.

His grandmother stood at the bottom of the stairs, tapping her foot.

“Neville really, it’s your first day. You should be on time, that woman won’t…”

“Gran, I’ll be early- dinner is not for a few hours yet.”

His grandmother shook her head and began her usual checklist for whenever he would leave the house, causing Neville to preemptively sigh and stare at his shoes.

“Do you have your wand?”

“Yes, Gran!”

“Your trunk?”

“Gran- you can see it’s right there!” Neville gesticulated wildly at the trunk behind him, causing it to thump on the stairs.

“Yes, but when I didn’t ask, you left your trunk on the Hogwarts Express, and we had to go all the way to Scotland to retrieve your things!”

“I am never going to live that down- it was one time!”

A single eyebrow was raised.

“Ok, twice!”

She nodded, validated. “Now do you have your cloak?”

Neville smacked his forehead as the remembrall chimed. That’s what he forgot.

His grandmother rolled her eyes (not that she would ever admit to doing so), before grinning.

“Jarrey?”

The elderly house-elf appeared next to his grandmother with a bow. “Lady Longbottom.”

“The package for my grandson please.”

“Of course, my lady.”

“I figured you’d forget something, and a wizard should never go anywhere without a cloak, it’s just not proper, so...”

Jarrey reappeared with a package, emblazoned with Madam Malkin’s flourishing double M’s on the front.

“I had this made for you- your grandfather always looked so dashing in this cut. It’s charmed to not wrinkle and should be professionally cleaned. Have a house-elf take care of it- don’t try to charm it clean yourself like you did with my scarf.”

“Gran...”

“Hush now boy.” She didn’t even let him open the package and drew the cloak around his shoulders. It was a beautiful deep red in an older more traditional style- stiff, but still beautiful, and one that honestly should never ever go near the greenhouses where he would surely be spending most of his time. Neville tried unsuccessfully for a minute to find the pockets, as Augusta adjusted how the cloak fell on his shoulders. With a final pat, she nodded, “Now you must go.”

Neville turned, looking for the portkey, and then spun back around.

His grandmother sighed, knowing that look on her grandson’s face all too well.

“What have you forgotten now?”

Neville grinned, “Just this.”

He wrapped her up in a giant hug, the kind she loved but always chided him for. He was taller than her now, and he heard her chuckle into his shoulder before she ordered, “Neville! Please, this is very undignified! Put me down!”

Neville obliged, and kissed her cheek, as she adjusted his cloak once again.

“Love you, Gran. See you in a few weeks.”

“I know.” She looked him in the eyes, “Do your parents proud.”

Neville could only nod. The cloak felt a little heavier on his shoulders. He cleared his head and grabbed the enchanted Hogwarts Faculty Guidelines and Code of Ethics, focusing on his next adventure.

“Portus.”

The tome yanked him into a void of swirling colors and his feet flipped over his head. Then, half a breath later, his feet were miraculously on the ground. He stumbled but caught himself, looking around to get his bearings. The unease of traveling by portkey vanished as he stared beyond the gates that towered in front of him. The castle stood proud, shining in the distance, highlighted by the afternoon sun. Here he was, the next junior professor of herbology. Neville steadied himself with a deep breath. Yes, he was ready for this. This was exactly where he was supposed to be.

Or maybe not.

With a crash, a solid weight dropped on top of him, sending him sprawling on the ground and his trunk flying the other direction, opening, spilling his belongings all over the ground.

“Agh! Bloody hell Longbottom! That better be my broomstick!”

Neville scurried back, blushing violently.

“Madam ...Madam Hooch?”

The flight instructor laughed as she picked up her offending broomstick from the ground. Neville sat there stunned. She just cursed… in front of him! A student! …Well, Neville mused, shaking his head, he wasn’t a student anymore.

“Well, come on then.” The woman huffed as she tugged him quite forcefully to his feet, “Get your bag and let’s move before we start a slumber party here.”

“I’m sorry Madam Hooch, I did not realize, everyone uses the same coordinates.”

She rolled her eyes, “It’s Ro, Rolanda, or Hooch, none of that “madam” nonsense. Why on earth do you think they gave a specific time to arrive? Come on, I was running late too, let’s….”

Before the flying instructor could finish her sentence, they were sprawled on the ground again.

“OH for fuck’s sake Rolanda!” A disheveled cloak shrieked.

“Hello to you too Irma.” The flight instructor chuckled.

The cloak fought with its owner before revealing the rather agitated Hogwarts librarian, who looked less like the prim and proper overseer of the library that Neville remembered hiding from in his youth, but more like a rather pissed off and properly peeved witch.

“Madam Pince?” Neville stuttered. She did not respond but glared, holding out her hand. As Neville reached out to help her up, she waved him off. A cane, her souvenir from the final battle, Neville recalled, emerged from the pile of belongings, and nearly clipped him on the ear as it sailed back into its mistress’ hand. Neville braced himself as he saw Pince open her mouth to surely berate him, but she was cut off by another.

_“Meow.”_

The teachers all turned towards the sound, and Rolanda hawk-like eyes found the feline first. As she helped the librarian to her feet, the flight instructor called out, “Oy, Minerva! Having fun up there?”

The most famous tabby cat in Scotland scampered down from the top of the fence and transformed gracefully into the venerable headmistress before her paws touched the ground.

“Indeed.” Minerva McGonagall said, her eyes twinkling with amusement, as she surveyed the scene in front of her, “Hello everyone.”

Neville tried unsuccessfully to stand as he murmured hello to his head of house. He shook his head and looked at her again- this was his employer now, the Headmistress of Hogwarts- the twinkle came with the post it seemed.

As Neville scrambled to his feet, he couldn’t help but note that the years had been kinder to Minerva McGonagall after the war. She looked the same as she did when she handed him his diploma a few years ago, but perhaps less tired. Her eyes seemed brighter, and the barest hint of grey appeared to be making itself known at her temples. With a swish of tartan, she turned to her veteran professors.

“Let’s save the re-introductions and traumatizing our new professor for when we get inside, shall we? Filius and Pomona are due to arrive in a few minutes, and minimalists, they are not.”

“Of course, Headmistress.” The librarian huffed. Madam Pince efficiently brushed the dirt off her cloak and summoned her belongings back into her carpetbag while throwing a few items forcefully back to Neville and Madam Hooch who just continued to cackle in delight, much to the librarian’s chagrin. With one last glare, she took off towards the gate, but not without ‘accidentally’ stepping on Hooch’s foot with her cane.

Neville was still furiously stuffing his belongings back into his trunk as Rolanda created a small windstorm collecting her own possessions and shrinking them to stuff into her pockets. She patted Neville on the shoulder, and to his surprise, kissed the Headmistress on the cheek, before chasing after the librarian laughing. “Ta-ra, Min! Oy, Irma, hold your thestrals!”

The headmistress chuckled at the flight instructor’s antics and leaned down to pick something off the ground. She cleared her throat and held it out to the new junior herbology professor. Neville prayed fervently to Merlin, Morgana, and Circe to transfigure the item into his resignation instead. His prayers went unanswered.

Minerva McGonagall, with the same poise that she used in class to pass out textbooks, water goblets, and hedgehogs, just handed him his underwear.

“Welcome to Hogwarts, Professor Longbottom.”


End file.
